Born: Wellington
Home town: Auckland
Qualifications: Cert III Sport & Recreation
Describe yourself in three words: Fire, fire, Loa
If I wasn't playing rugby league, I'd be a...leader of my home town
Favourite movie: Twilight
Favourite holiday destination: New Zealand
Twitter handle: @KalifaF
Role model: AJ (aka Aussie Jim)
Biggest career achievement so far: Doing the haka
Best off-field achievement: Sport & rec qualifications
Pre-game ritual: Breaky - cricket - sleep - play
Training/ fitness tip: Try to do something every day
Goal for 2013: Three simple words - never give up
A junior from the Marist Saints club in Auckland, Faifai Loa first came to Australia to play in the junior grades with Newcastle. After being released by the Knights, he linked with St George Illawarra where he became one of the stars of the Toyota Cup competition. His first game in the under-20s saw the winger produce a 215-metre effort against Melbourne in round one of the 2009 season and he surpassed the 100-metre mark in all but five of the 25 games he played, as well as scoring 12 tries.
Faifai Loa’s 2010 NYC campaign was even more impressive as he averaged a whopping 186 metres a game for the Dragons and came up with 17 tries in 20 appearances. Wayne Bennett gave the Kiwi his NRL debut in round 10 of the ’10 season against Canberra.
He came to the Cowboys for the 2011 season and ended the year by making his first Test appearance for New Zealand against Australia before heading off to the Four Nations in the UK.
